Inspector of Robredo plane fired

File photo of the wing wreckage of the doomed Piper Seneca plane that killed Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo last August 18. FILE PHOTO/AP

MANILA, Philippines–Two years after Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo died in a plane crash, the inspector who allegedly gave the fraudulent certifications on the ill-fated plane was finally dismissed from service.

In a decision by the Office of the Ombudsman, Fernando Valdez Abalos, an airworthiness inspector of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), was found guilty in the administrative complaint filed by CAAP Director General William Hotchkiss III.

“Wherefore this office finds Fernando Valdez Abalos guilty of grave misconduct, serious dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and hereby meted the penalty of dismissal from the service, with its accessory penalties,” the decision penned Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang on Sept. 12 reads.

The Ombudsman, however, dismissed, based on technicality, the criminal complaint filed by CAAP against Abalos and two other private respondents Nelson Napata and Federico Omolon III of Aviatour Fly’n Inc., the operator of the crashed plane.

The Piper Seneca (RP-C4431) crashed and sank off Masbate coast on Aug. 18. 2012, killing Robredo and two others, pilot Jessup Bahinting and student pilot Kshitiz Chand.

Robredo’s aide, Police Senior Insp. June Abrazado survived the crash.

Blamed for crash

The CAAP inspector, one of those primarily blamed for the incident, was charged by the CAAP leadership at the Ombudsman.

Copies of the decision were forwarded to Hotchkiss who immediately ordered the dismissal of Abalos.

In a separate resolution for the criminal complaint, a violation of Republic Act No. 9497 against the three, the Ombudsman said: “It is a rule in statutory construction that penal laws are to be construed strictly against the State and liberally in favor of the accused.”

The Ombudsman thus recommended the filing of charges against the three at the Pasay Regional Trial Court.

According to the results of the investigation by the Aircraft Accident Inquiry and Investigation Board (AAIIB) of CAAP after the crash, Aviatour, the flight school and air taxi service that operated the ill-fated

Piper Seneca plane used a fraudulent test flight clearance to prove the aircraft’s airworthiness.

The clearance was given by the CAAP inspector even though no test flight was conducted, as shown by the absence of a record on the aircraft logbook.

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